Just a little tipsy
Another Round has plenty of characters on the edge of being drunk ... all the time
There are levels of intoxication. Sober. Drunk. Drunk-pretending-to-be-sober. (Hands half up if you've been there.) And then there's sober-pretending-to-beslightly- drunk- pretending- tobe-sober.
That odd state of quasi-inebriation was the purview of Mads Mikkelsen, the Danish actor starring in his country's Academy Awards foreign-language contender Another Round. Mikkelsen plays a middle-aged teacher who decides to try an experiment with his friends — they'll day-drink their way into a state of constant mild tipsiness and see how it affects their lives.
The kooky concept actually has a semi-scientific origin. Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud once theorized that humans are born with a blood-alcohol level that is 0.05 per cent too low, and would be better off with a little beer in the belly. It's been roundly debunked, but that's not stopping Martin (Mikkelsen) and his friends.
So how do you play drunk? “Most actors approach it like you're trying not to be drunk,” says Mikkelsen. “You're trying not to be caught. We all know that from our lives, as well.”
Rather than go Method and hit the Scotch before each take, Mikkelsen and his co-stars researched the physicality of being pickled. “We watched a lot of videos of real people — often Russians — doing crazy stuff.” And an important thing to remember: If you stumble, “you do not use your hands to protect yourself.”
One painful-looking moment features a heavily mickeyed Martin weaving joyfully through a crowded staff room before cracking his head on a door frame. “A little Buster Keaton,” he says, recalling the scene. “He's getting away with it. He's almost flying.”
And what does Mikkelsen make of the so-called science behind Another Round? “I'm not saying we should do it,” he notes carefully. “But it's a fact that if you have two glasses of wine, your conversation improves, you get braver, you play better billiards, you play better darts.”
He adds cheekily: “Very few people who become husband and wife don't do that without some alcohol involved.” But also: “There's a big difference between two glasses and two bottles.”
Another Round marks the second time Mikkelsen has worked with director Thomas Vinterberg. The first was eight years ago with The Hunt, a powerful drama that was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar, and earned Mikkelsen the best actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
“We became friends after The Hunt,” he says. “So it wasn't like we hadn't seen each other in years.”
They talked for weeks before the shoot about how it would go. “Once we were on the set, we were not going to stand there and waste a lot of time.” And he'd happily go another round with Vinterberg. “It's been like a dance.” Skol!